SVG is a useful format for media presentations. SVG can provide a layout within which other media can be embedded and played, for real-time stock and traffic information, and for entertainment purposes. In recent years, Mobile Scalable Vector Graphics (Mobile SVG), has been adopted as the new imaging standard by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for playing a pivotal role in bringing improved graphics and images to mobile devices.
Recently, 3GPP and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) have begun work on the streaming of rich media over Portable and Simple Syndication (PSS) and Multimedia Broadcast/Multicast Service (MBMS). This requires the ability to combine both raster and vector graphics with existing audio, video, and timed text media. However, unlike existing frame-based media, SVG follows for declarative animation with a specified presentation start time and duration. All the different tracks in the rich media need to be temporally synchronized and streamed via real-time transport protocol (RTP) packets using the track information contained within the ISO Base Media File Format. Currently, the RTP payload specifications cater to the packetization of frame-based media and results in synchronization problems among frame-based and non-frame based SVG.
Currently, SVG and other media can only be downloaded and progressively downloaded via HTTP. There is currently no mechanism for permitting the download of SVG over FLUTE, which is a Cascading Style Sheets, Level 2 (CSS2) parser written in Java that implements SAC. SAC is an event-based application program interface (API) for CSS parsers.
Additionally, due to the lack of an appropriate RTP payload format, there is currently no available mechanism for streaming SVG contents either out of ISO base media files or directly from live content.
Previously, there has been work on transport mechanisms for media formats such as audio, video and timed text. Macromedia Flash, a proprietary format for vector graphics, does not have support for real time (RTSP/RTP) streaming. Instead, Flash only uses progressive downloading from a web server or http streaming via the Flash Communication Server which only runs in a Windows environment.